


The Write Stuff

by magician



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Bingo, Bingo challenge card, Challenge Response, Essays, Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 04:16:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13896060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magician/pseuds/magician
Summary: What do writerslikelove about these guys?





	The Write Stuff

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2018 Sentinel Bingo Challenge for the prompt "cannon fodder". Because my limited imagination could only think of sad things for that prompt, the mods very kindly allowed me to change it to _canon_ fodder. ;^D
> 
> Although I mostly focus on fanfic in this essay, there have been many wondrous non-fic TS creations. Artwork of all kinds and vids made by talented people populate our fandom. If you've seen any of the icons I've snagged for my LJ and DW, you can see how expressive just a few words or strokes of color can be.

Like many TS fans, I learned about The Sentinel through reading fanfic. I don't know exactly what I was doing twenty years ago, but obviously not watching TV. Fast forward to 2005 and I discovered online fanfiction. Not TS--I think it was X-Files. However, the author also wrote in TS, which is how I found Jim and Blair. And Jim/Blair, because I actually came across more slash fic than gen. At first, I read individual authors, but they always had links to their favorite authors/sites. A hop, skip and jump got me to 852 Prospect, WWOMB, Cascade Library, Starfox's Mansion, Almost Pure Sentinel and many others. Discovering the Light My Fire Awards, where fen nominated other fen, turned me on to other artists/authors/sites.  
  
I jumped into the pool and just never got out. You all know what I mean, right? Thirteen years later, I continue to read, but I've also contributed story recommendations, joined episode and fic discussions, and I've finally paddled over to the deep end--I've started writing fanfic.  
  
But before I started writing, I started collecting--stories and links to stories, so I could re-read my favorites. I joined TS Storyfinders Yahoo group and Sentinel Fan Fiction Finders, both dedicated to rediscovering "lost" fic. I filled up Excel spreadsheets and Word documents, organizing them mostly by category: Blair with money problems, Apocalyptic stories, William stories, Naomi stories, Blair's father stories, Jim's mother stories, crossovers, drinking, camping, minor characters (Alex, Kincaid, Carolyn, Eli Stoddard), AUs (historical, future, different meeting, S/G are known), holidays, smarm, hurt/comfort, missing scenes, on and on.  
  
Eventually, I saw the episodes, in order, from start to finish. I'm not sure, but I think I liked it better than if I'd seen it during the first run, simply because I was already in love with the characters from the fanfic. Watching the episodes made me realize that there are things in the show that pinged our writers.  
  
Broad categories, like slash and smarm, obviously had their roots in all that touching, all that caring between these two disparate guys who end up living together quite happily. Very specific categories, like Kidnapped!Blair coupled with Rescuer!Jim, found their roots in Cypher and The Girl Next Door. Blair-to-the-rescue stories were either a reaction to over-the-top victim!Blair stories or from canon such as Secret. Jim's not-so-subtle remarks about his dad, coupled with what we saw of William in Remembrance, give us fanfic that runs the gamut from a William who fully accepts Blair as a son-in-law to someone who brutalized Jim physically and emotionally.  
  
Since I'd have to write a novel to fully explore the tens of thousands of stories, and the dozens of categories (if you can even categorize all of them), I'm limiting this essay to just one. It's a rather broad category of fanfic (fan art, icons & vids) and we'll explore what canon contributed to it.  
  
That category is domesticity. It includes curtain fic, holiday fic, the guys as parents, food fic, camping fic, nesting, taking care of one or the other when they're sick or hurt, pining for each other, even Jewish!Blair stories. It comes in slash, gen or smarm varieties, although slash stories almost always have a level of domesticity in them. Why do so many fan creations revolve around Domestic Jim and Blair? Is it a matter of wishful thinking? Is putting these two lovely, likeable guys together simply a projection on the fans' parts?  
  
Afraid not. In the show, there's plenty of grist for the fannish mill, so to speak. The fodder begins almost immediately--at their second meeting, in fact. It's the touching. Jim shows his dominance by shoving Blair against the wall. Far from being intimidated, Blair actually starts kneading Jim's shirt/shoulders (and Jim doesn't seem to mind). In the next scene, after Blair pushes Jim under the garbage truck, Jim uses his hand on Blair's back to escort him away, a proprietary gesture described often in fanfic. There's also a great shot at the end of Switchman (that somehow got cut from the episode and that I snagged from Caro Dee's old site) that has Blair putting his hand on Jim's sternum. Such an unusual place for a casual touch, so personal, so unconsciously done. He does it again in Siege on the rooftop, when he asks whether it was a typical day for Jim. Who just smiles. No "get your hand off me Sandburg" or pushing it aside. Just the smile. Yeah.

  
  
_[Is Jim touchy-feely only with Blair? Or is he a generally handsy guy?]_  
  
                     
_no touching                                                     touching - very personal touching_  
  
_[And what about Blair?]_  
  
                     
_no touching this sentinel                                  touching this sentinel_

We continue to see lots of touching. Both Jim and Blair chivvy each other out of rooms, they bandage each other up, and that scene in the PD parking garage when Blair has OD'd on Golden and Jim takes him into his arms is aw-worthy, whether you see it as slash or smarm. Blair touches Jim not only to get his attention, but when he's helping Jim use his senses or to try to recall a memory. Little wonder the fanon "guide touch" became so popular.  
  
The saying "familiarity breeds contempt" doesn't apply to these guys. The more time they spend together, the more they seem to like it. I don't even think TPTB needed to fabricate a reason for them to live together, although that made it more fun. They were already forced together by their mutual need (because of the _senses_ , of course). Although Blair has University commitments, he's obviously got enough free time to devote to Jim, and Jim kind of eats it up. He was there during regular case investigations, but also joined Jim on stake-outs and police events, like the public service basketball game between the Jags and the PD. He accompanies Jim on the Night Train to escort a high-profile witness and goes undercover (against his better judgement) with Jim in Spare Parts. He even goes undercover during Neighborhood Watch, joining "married" Megan and Jim. What's funny is that Simon insists he go along.  
  
During all those long hours, they share a ritual that's been bringing people together since the dawn of time: they break bread. They go to restaurants, they order take-out, they eat hot dogs in the park (and share it with a dog), introduce Megan to the joys of Mr. Tube Steak, and they cook. Jim even owns an apron. Do real men cook? Of course they do, unless they want to spend a fortune eating out. There's a little exchange with Carolyn in "Switchman" where she invites Jim to dinner and he remarks that she doesn't cook. Her answer is "I do _now_ ". Obviously, he did the cooking during their short-term marriage.  
  
The loft's kitchen looms large in canon, another reason for so much cooking fic. Jim makes spaghetti (Poachers), he stir-fries noodles (Love and Guns). He even cooks one-handed; we see him stirring something while his arm is in a sling (Sen Too Part 1). He organizes the leftovers in color-coded Tupperware.  
  
Sheila Irwin cooks breakfast for them in "Hear No Evil". It's amusing that, at Blair's surprise to find her there, Jim explains that "nothing happened" between them. Heh.  
  
Naomi made tongue in their kitchen, Blair's favorite dish. She also makes a vegetarian stew and a tofu mince pie. And Vince Deal serves them some not-very-appetizing pancakes.  
  
Blair's no slouch in the kitchen, either. He makes breakfast the first morning after moving in, prompting Jim's snarky "courtship ritual" comment that shows up in any number of fic. He makes a salad for Jim when he's sulking in Deep Water. He makes the infamous ostrich chili in Secret, which Joel enjoys so much. He creates a multi-course meal he hopes will woo The Girl Next Door. He brews a native remedy for Jim's cold (spurring all those stories where one is nursing the other back to health). And he tells Jim and Simon he has a great recipe for fish cooked in leaves over hot rocks. And speaking of fishing…  
  
Another thing they do that fuels our fic is spend vacations and leisure time together. Jim teaches Blair how to fly fish in Poachers, Blair's going to try his Cree fishing spear in Secret (before Jim gets kidnapped) and they are going kayaking in Reunion. When Simon receives tickets from Arthur Dell to a special reception party for the Jaguars, he gives one to Jim and Jim expects to get the other one… for Blair. At the beginning of Cypher, they're leaving a Jags game when they get the call to investigate a case. They go to the races together in His Brother's Keeper, even though Jim doesn't care for horse racing. Jim takes Blair when he visits his cousin to celebrate Rucker's birthday. Despite his unhappiness that Blair chose a monastery as a getaway weekend in Vow of Silence, he says "the next time _we_ go away… I'm going to pick the place". In fanfic, of course, Jim and Blair have been all over the world together, but the seeds for those stories are pure canon.  
_  
[They do stuff together]  
  
                     _____  
__they go fishing/camping                                    attend formal functions                                      jump off cliffs  
  
__ Of course, once Blair moved into Jim's place, originally for "only a week", the domesticity index shot up. Jim's Rules of the Loft (keep the mess in your room, don't flush after 10 pm, don't play music loud enough for Jim to hear - heh- and the infamous color-coded Tupperware) are canon (enumerated during The Rig), but the number of times they've appeared in fanfic are legion. I've heard fen tell stories of how people unfamiliar with TS watched it for the first time and were sure Jim and Blair were a couple. Little wonder that regular watchers thought so, too. Whether they wrote gen, smarm or slash, writers invariably have them together in a close, warm relationship, __  
  
So, where to find such domesticity? There are fewer author/artist sites and fewer archives than when I started reading over a decade ago. You can look [ here ](https://magician114.livejournal.com/4804.html) where I listed archive sites that were around in 2009. And [ here ](https://magician114.livejournal.com/4264.html) where I listed sites of one/two creators. Sadly, many sites were lost when Geocities closed down. Of course, one of the biggest, if not the biggest right now is Archive of Our Own (which you know 'cause you're reading this). AO3 gave a home to the old 852 Prospect Archive as well as importing the FHSA and is currently importing the Artifact Storage Room 3 archive. AO3 is a great place to start. Here's what I found doing searches by tag (these numbers were pulled as of the beginning of March).  
Total works under The Sentinel fandom: 11557  
Tags: # of works  
Jim/Blair 7656  
First time 1938  
Jim &Blair 524  
Holidays 579  
Christmas 258  
First kiss 126  
Food 43  
Camping 10  
Vacation 16  
Kid fic 74  
  
Of course, not everyone tags everything. Over 6000 stories were imported from the old 852 Prospect archive, which didn't have the variety of tags you find at AO3. But this gives you a starting point. Other places to find fic are [ the Cascade Library (gen only stories) ](http://tslibrary.skeeter63.org/), [ Starfox's Mansion ](http://wolfpanther.com/), [ Brothers in Arms ](http://www.brothersinarmsfiction.com/), [ My Mongoose Ezine ](http://mymongoose.com/), [ Wolfpup's Den ](http://wolfpupsden.skeeter63.org/index.html). The Light My Fire Awards site is no longer active, having been discontinued in 2009. But it's a cool place to visit just to see titles and authors/artists by categories. Here's a [ Way Back Machine link ](http://lmfa.diagonalfiction.com/previous/previousyears.php) for it.  
  
  
So, now that I've blah, blah, blahed, it's your turn. What do you think of domestic fan creations? Do you have favorite canon domestic scenes that I've missed? Have you read any fic that were waaaay off the mark? Is there one that just makes you go awwww? Does this make you want to read more, or just run away screaming?

  

 

__Home, sweet home._ _

  
Do you have favorite themes that found their beginnings in canon? Hurt/comfort? Minor player characterizations, like sweet, kind, Joel or evil Cassie? Prison fic? Sentinel mythology/animal spirits/Blair as shaman? Lone Wolf Jim tamed by good-hearted Blair? Backstory? Blair as cop? AUs, of any kind? Let me know--we might start another chapter here!  Cheers and thanks for listening.

 

 

~~the end~~

**Author's Note:**

> Pictures courtesy of Starfox Mansion's gallery.


End file.
